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[Bungee_man]

Given that the player is basically drafted into helping him, even if he's openly aiding a half dozen different terrorist groups while being commissioned to the Hegemony, wouldn't Macario want some kind of assurance that the player is telling him the truth? It's not as if the player personally vets the thousand or so crew he hires on at Gilead every time an Invictus takes hull damage.

Come to think of it, wouldn't he also bug Hyder's and Caden's flagships? It seems easy enough for him to have a few personnel stationed on both vessels, given that having spies aboard important Diktat ships to keep tabs on rebels is his job. The Late-Soviet aesthetic of the Diktat being what it is, the lack of omnipresent hidden microphones is kind of startling.

[happycrow]

Because John Starsector is a disposable asset and bugs once found are identifiable/traceable.

[Doctorhealsgood]

Well bugging our fleet is likely very easily found out or accidentally thwarted considering we are constantly getting them blown up/repaired/tinkered with. That and that hypercomms aren't really that portable.

[TK3600]

Not gonna lie, it would be really cool if Macario can find out our lies through bugging and etc, then do something about it.

[Bungee_man]

Not gonna lie, it would be really cool if Macario can find out our lies through bugging and etc, then do something about it.

Oh, 100 percent. The role of the player is essentially an instigator who stirs things up so that Macario can observe the results and get a handle on how people react. It'd be a really cool inflection point for him to reveal at the halfway point that he'd been listening in on your conversations and planning in response to what you did. Maybe he'd mention offhand that you also aided rebel groups XYZ, or talked to Rao, though this wouldn't have any gameplay implications.

 * If you've been loyally reporting to him and doing as he's asked (Macario route), he might reveal that he's been watching you, concealing this until he knew you were a trustworthy asset.

 * If you've been encouraging Hyder towards defection (Hyder route), he might leak the tapes and gloat that he used you to discredit his chief competitor for power. The next mission in the lineup would be meeting up with Hyder's fleet before it's destroyed and exfiltrating her from the system.

 * If you've been prompting Caden to cut the strings (Caden route), he could mention that he plans on using Caden's destructive potential to drive more practical elements of the regime into his arms, and intends to assassinate Caden and installing a more pliable leader once he's made his point that his 'stabilizing influence' is necessary.


Thinking more about it, what do people think about these followups for the three routes?

Under Macario's route, the player does a few more "go here, do this, get intercepted by increasingly unsubtle Hegemony mercenaries" missions, then Caden is officially sworn in. Macario becomes a Very High Importance contact. Over the course of a few cycles, Macario does a few of the things he said he'd do, to varying degrees of success. His agents clear up the Path on Volturn, since it was infiltrated quite thoroughly, but when it comes time to clear out Umbra, he finds that pirates are too disorganized to reliably deal with the same way. He saturation bombs the place, killing Imoinu Kato, which results in tensions with the League. Finally, he tries to bring Nortia under control, with a Hegemony fleet moving in to guard them. After a while, a battle ensues, and the player can help one side or the other by attacking the opposing fleets, determining whether Nortia becomes a Diktat market. After all three events, the player can talk to Macario and find that he's realized things aren't as easy as he thought they'd be, and he needs time to contemplate his next steps. Player gets a story point, quest complete.

Under Hyder's route, Macario would declare you an enemy of the state, and you'd get a message from Rao (if you weren't already talking to him), deliver Hyder to him, then do a bunch of things with ARC and the Path to soften up the system (optionally) before moving in with an Independent-flagged Hegemony task force from Nortia to bring Sindria under "Independent Charterist" control. The interrim government is overthrown in a couple of months, but the Diktat is weakened significantly, and the fuel production facilities are 'accidentally' destroyed as the Hegemony pulls out. The player talks to Rao to wrap things up, with the option of either accepting a large sum of credits and a pat on the back, or calling Rao and the Hegemony out for throwing the lives of tens of millions of people into chaos with no end in sight. Player gets a story point, quest complete.

Under Caden's route, Macario would be unable to declare the player persona non grata (since Caden likes him, and he's supreme leader), but would take over on his own in a few months and initiate a 'Gens Hannan machinations' - style event gradually hurting the player's ability to do business in Diktat space. Diktat fleets would start using Lion's Guard ships and weapons, phasing them in over about a cycle. Maybe Volturn becomes a Luddic Path market after another cycle or so, if the player gave them weapons. Player gets a comms ping from Macario at some point after this, and can talk to him - Macario asks something along the lines of "Is this what you wanted?", the player can say yes (cocky++) or no (humanitarian++), Macario says it doesn't matter, the dream is dead. Player gets a story point, quest complete.